Game Features

Removing RNG: how eliminating luck can benefit strategy card games 1

This entry was posted in Game Features Insight and tagged Hearthstone luck rng on by

This article originally appeared as a guest feature on continue-play.com

 

What if a card game like Magic: The Gathering or Hearthstone had no luck? Would it be playable? Exciting? Balanced? Skill-testing? When I ask people this question, most of them seem to think that it would introduce a huge number of problems, crippling the experience for players. But I’m here to make a bold counter-claim: If done right, removing randomness can actually make a card game better.

 

My justification for this statement is effectively a case in point. For many years, I’ve been working on a game called Prismata with a group of friends from MIT. Prismata is, effectively, an online competitive card game without randomness—a seemingly impossible game that shouldn’t exist. In reality, Prismata borrows a lot of ideas from real-time strategy games and tabletop board games to make the concept work. However, blending these ideas in a usable way was no simple task; Prismata required years of testing and iteration, and the entire project was scrapped and restarted from scratch over a dozen times.

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Prismata’s Tech Trees: The stories behind Prismata’s craziest units

This entry was posted in Game Features Insight and tagged chrono filter new units ossified drone savior technology units zemora voidbringer on by

making prismata ma

 

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve introduced a variety of new units, from the utterly game-changing Apollo to the more subtle Auride Core. We’re aiming to release new units on a consistent basis, as it keeps the game fresh and players adapting, but there are a lot of considerations that go into creating units that are radical and seamlessly integrative.

I’ve already explained the significance of sniping, but what other game-changing mechanics are on Prismata’s horizon?

In this post I’ll explain the design philosophy behind four of our latest units: Ossified drone, Zemora Voidbringer, Chrono Filter, and tomorrow’s new unit, the Savior:

Unreleased until now, Savior enables burst attack and asymmetry.

The Savior provides a sudden burst of attack and can lead to asymmetrical game states.

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How we added tournaments to Prismata in 30 hours: a hackathon post-mortem 21

This entry was posted in Game Features Insight and tagged hackathon post-mortem tournaments on by

One week ago we ran our Prismata tourney hackathon, in which we attempted to develop a tournament feature for our online game Prismata in only 30 hours. Overall, it was an excellent experience for us in which we were highly productive. In this article, we’re going to describe how things went, what we accomplished, and what we learned.

But first, here’s the highlight reel:

[youtube=http://youtu.be/hQE39nDg4RM&w=880&h=495]

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Coding huge multiplayer tournaments in 30 hours: the Prismata hackathon 12

This entry was posted in Banter Game Features News and tagged hackathon tournament tournaments on by

Edit: stream and publicly viewable docs are up, and we’ve blown up over at /r/gamedev.

This is a post about a game development hackathon that we’ll be live-streaming for much of the next two days. But this is no ordinary hackathon. We’re upping the ante by setting a hard deadline that could result in extreme embarrassment if things go horribly wrong. Allow me to explain.

Organized tournaments are a favourite aspect of many of the games we know and love, and Prismata is no different, being an excellent candidate for compelling and competitive tourneys. After the success of events like Alex’s Prismata Cup Hearthstone tournament, our fans have been begging us to host an actual Prismata tournament. So, at long last, we’re doing it. The first ever Prismata Open Tourney will happen tomorrow, Thursday October 16th, at 7pm Eastern time. We’ve recruited a slew of Hearthstone and poker pros to participate, including millionaire poker superstar Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald and Hearthstone number one Americas legend Jeffrey ‘Tarei’ Liu. The tournament is going to be epic.

There is just one problem.

Prismata currently doesn’t support tournaments. At all. There is literally no tournament feature in Prismata, and we’ve never worked on one before.

That’s why we’re adding tournaments, today. We’ll be designing, coding, and refining Prismata’s tournament features in a 30-hour hackathon that starts 1pm EST Wednesday and ends at 7pm Thursday—when the first Prismata tournament will begin.

Oops. We just did.

 

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2 New Units, 1 New Mechanic: Let’s see how you like the red dot! 2

This entry was posted in Game Features News and tagged new units snipe sniping on by

making prismata ma

 

You’re 10 turns into a game of Prismata. Both you and your opponent are pumping out attackers as fast as you can, but nothing seems to be enough to penetrate their Defense Grid. They buy a Wall, you buy a Wall. Tit for tat.

What’s the best move in this type of situation? To stop buying defense in favour of burst attackers? Risky! Switch your tech to a more offensive play? Inefficient! Wait for them to run out of defensive unit seeds? There isn’t a clear answer in situations like this, especially for new players who aren’t sure how risky each option truly is.

Until now.

 

Let’s talk about our latest two units, and the new game mechanic that’s going to change everything about turtle defense builds in Prismata.

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Introducing a new feature in Prismata: the Grandmaster Set 5

This entry was posted in Game Features News and tagged Design features Gamedev grandmaster sets units on by

If there’s one feature that sets Prismata apart from other games, it’s the diversity of units available. Most games of Prismata use a “base set” of units, plus some advanced units that are randomly generated. But unlike in deckbuilding games where you might need to spend $3,000 or more to get all the good cards, players in Prismata are evenly matched because:

  • All units are available to EVERYONE from the beginning
  • Both players in a 1v1 match have the same units available in each game

 

Vel'kar

Until now, static unit sets have only been available when playing Vel’kar. Players have never been able to refine strategies on a static set for competitive play.

When players begin the automatching process (or choose to fight against an AI), they choose a subset of the hundreds of unit combinations to play with. The current options are:

  • Beginner Set: This set doesn’t use any of the green resource in its 10 units. Instead, it focuses on introducing the Prompt, Stamina and Lifespan unit abilities.
  • Base + 5: A set that includes the base set and 5 additional, randomly generated, units.
  • Base + 8: A set that includes the base set and 8 additional, randomly generated, units.

These options provide virtually endless unit and strategy combinations, as well as opportunities for new players to learn basic game mechanics. The only thing lacking is an opportunity to sink your teeth into a static and intricate set of units that can be played again and again as you refine a specific strategy. Until now.

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Prismata’s soundtrack is radically different from most video game soundtracks. Here’s why. 115

This entry was posted in Banter Game Features and tagged music on by

Fun fact: for more than 3-and-a-half of the 4 years that Prismata has been in development, the game had no sound or music at all.

After the break: something you *can* hear!

It was about five months ago when that finally needed to change, and we began the process of acquiring a proper soundtrack together for Prismata. We produced our soundtrack in a manner that’s quite a bit different from what most game studios do, and the results have been brilliant. At long last, we’re ready to give you a sneak peak.

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The 10 questions most frequently received by Prismata’s design team 5

This entry was posted in Game Features Insight Strategy and tagged balance Design game mechanics Prismata on by

After releasing our how-to-play video two weeks ago, we’ve been getting more questions than ever about how Prismata was designed, what Prismata matches feel like, and why we made such unconventional decisions in crafting the game itself.

Prismata is unique in that it combines aspects of both card games and real-time strategy games, which led to many difficulties and challenges in its design. This article will attempt to shed some light on the design decisions that seem really bizarre to first time players, and answer other common questions.

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The Prismata Base Set

This entry was posted in Game Features Strategy and tagged base set Prismata strategy units on by

Prismata is different from many strategy games in that when challenging an opponent, you don’t build your army from a fixed tech tree, nor do you bring a deck of cards with you to battle. Instead, the units available for purchase are randomly chosen from a set of dozens of different units, meaning that new strategies must be planned every game.

However, there is one special set of units—the Prismata base set—that is available in every single game.

In this article, we’ll be focusing on the base set, which lies at the foundation of all of Prismata. The Prismata base set contains eleven core units, providing a flexible and reliable selection of technologies that you can use as a starting point whenever you begin planning your strategy. The base set units in Prismata allow you to ramp up your economy, invest in technologies, and obtain essential offensive and defensive capabilities that can supplement the rest of your forces. (more…)

An Exposition of the Exact Rules of Prismata 9

This entry was posted in Game Features and tagged Design game mechanics Prismata rules strategy on by

Prismata is a fast-paced, turn-based game that mixes together ideas from real-time strategy games and card games.  In Prismata, players take turns collecting resources, building up units, and eventually attacking each other.  The objective is to destroy all of your opponent’s units – before they do the same to you.

Screen Shot 2014-08-12 at 4.37.51 PM

Your forces are displayed on the bottom half of the screen, while your opponent’s forces are displayed on the top half.

Resources in Prismata

There are five resources in Prismata: gold, energy, green, blue, and red.  These are their symbols, in order:

Screen Shot 2014-08-12 at 1.17.46 PM

At the bottom of your screen, you see how many of each resource you currently have. Your opponent’s resources are displayed at the top of your screen.

Gold and green, once produced, are stored until they are spent.  Energy, blue, and red expire at the end of each turn, meaning they can only be used on the same turn they are produced.

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